Sports training equipment has been used abundantly to help athletes improve the quality of their sporting play and experience. From golf putting alignment devices to weighted baseball bats, and from compression clothing to power-measuring bicycle pedals, there are a large number of devices which athletes can use to help them train, receive feedback about their performance, and help improve recovery between training.
Basketball is no exception. There are a wide variety of basketball training aids. For example, some aids help an athlete shoot the ball, some remind the athlete how to play defense, and some aid the athlete in performing a layup. Several types of devices have been developed to attempt to train an athlete on how to shoot a ball properly. These include devices for training both the shooting hand (the hand which holds and shoots the ball) and the guide hand (the hand which supports and guides the ball during shooting). Gloves for training the shooting hand may train the fingers to spread apart on the basketball, reduce lateral or rolling movement at the wrist, or point the fingers in a certain way after shooting. Gloves for training the guide hand include those which position the hand on the side of the ball, or prevent the athlete's forearm from bending away from his upper arm, or pull the thumb back toward the arm. Other basketball gloves prevent the athlete from “thumbing” or providing excessive rotation to the ball during the shot. In summary, there are many types of basketball training gloves.
Unfortunately, the known gloves fail to reinforce and train proper one-handed shooting technique. With proper shooting technique, a majority of support and power comes from the shooting hand, and the guide hand functions simply to stabilize the ball laterally. With proper shooting technique, the shooting must be under the ball, and the guide hand must be directed vertically on the side of the ball. However, most training aids, when attempting to correct one known issue, inadvertently create other problems. For instance, one training aid draws the thumb back from the hand in an attempt to prevent the athlete from thumbing the basketball. However, younger shooters, who have not yet developed the strength of older players, will compensate for the isolation of the thumb by cradling the basketball equally between both hands and will then heavily rely on shooting the ball with both hands and splaying their fingers during the shot, in order to apply power to the shot that would have otherwise been provided by the isolated thumb. Younger shooters will thus tend to rely too much on using the fingers of both hands to shoot when the thumb on the guide hand is drawn back in this fashion.
Heretofore, basketball training aids have been used with the hand which is being trained. In other words, if the shooting hand is being trained, the shooting hand is applied with a glove or other device. Similarly, if the guide hand is being trained, the guide hand is applied with a glove or other device. This narrowed focus has failed to meet the needs of actual athletes. There is no glove which properly trains the athlete in how the guide hand should engage the basketball itself, in cooperation with the shooting hand, to shoot the ball properly. An improved basketball training glove is needed.